Week 7 - Maus and the Legitimization of the Graphic Novel
When I was little I would walk around the bookstore looking for anything to read and always seemed to find myself running into this book. I never really payed it much attention as I had enough history in my day to day at school. However I eventually caved in when a friend of mine showed it to me and praised it's existence.
This work is truly something spectacular. The retelling of the horrors of the holocaust and Nazi Germany by using animals such as rats in place of the jews really helps drive home the horrid point of view that the Nazis shared. The execution of which led the people to see Graphic Novels as something else besides cheesy books for geeks or children. It tackles a fairly recent tragedy in the history of human kind and allows the readers to experience it as if first hand within the point of view of the anthropomorphic animals yet at the same time helps the readers learn from the past.
Similarly, Nakazawa's autobiographical manga, I Saw It, and the movie adaptation, Barefoot Gen, also strive to show, teach, and prove a point with its presentation. Nakazawa's story is the stuff of nightmares. His depictions of the people of Hiroshima, before and after the bomb really put into perspective the lives of these people. As the movie begins, you learn of their habits, families, and hopes and dreams, allowing one to easily fall in love with these characters only for them to be blown to pieces and suffer horrible deaths. The Hardest part of all of this is how the movie accurately depicts them as real people because they were. I think that is what makes these two stories so effective. They show and tell real stories with real characters and truly strive to make others learn and be aware of the existence of these tragedies so that they never have to happen again.
This work is truly something spectacular. The retelling of the horrors of the holocaust and Nazi Germany by using animals such as rats in place of the jews really helps drive home the horrid point of view that the Nazis shared. The execution of which led the people to see Graphic Novels as something else besides cheesy books for geeks or children. It tackles a fairly recent tragedy in the history of human kind and allows the readers to experience it as if first hand within the point of view of the anthropomorphic animals yet at the same time helps the readers learn from the past.
Similarly, Nakazawa's autobiographical manga, I Saw It, and the movie adaptation, Barefoot Gen, also strive to show, teach, and prove a point with its presentation. Nakazawa's story is the stuff of nightmares. His depictions of the people of Hiroshima, before and after the bomb really put into perspective the lives of these people. As the movie begins, you learn of their habits, families, and hopes and dreams, allowing one to easily fall in love with these characters only for them to be blown to pieces and suffer horrible deaths. The Hardest part of all of this is how the movie accurately depicts them as real people because they were. I think that is what makes these two stories so effective. They show and tell real stories with real characters and truly strive to make others learn and be aware of the existence of these tragedies so that they never have to happen again.
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